Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Could Life Get Any Better Than This?

We have a sky filled with blue and gauzy wisps of clouds. It’s close to 80 degrees and a gentle breeze touching the air. Autumn has started dressing the trees here with color. Barges and yachts cruise up and down the Tombigbee River. Squirrels chatter as they chase each other up and down the trees and along the wooden pole fence. No, I don’t think it could get any better than this! Today is Wednesday… was it only 5 days ago on Friday that our axle broke? Whew…. well let’s go back to Saturday after we left DeQueen Arkansas, we dropped down and did a short 2 1/2 hour trip to Columbia Lake, near Magnolia! The skies drizzled on us all day!When was the last time you saw a gas station with gas posted for 91.9 cents a gallon? We were stopped for a dog walk and bathroom break and I had to take a photo. Grandkids will never believe that gas was so cheap!An hour or so later we ended up at Lake Columbia!All the colors here helped a gloomy day look better!Predictions for 60% rain for Sunday helped us decide we were going to stay over one more day. We were still a bit nervous about our new rebuilt axle. Losing an axle is a scary thing!Lake Columbia is a beautiful campground near Magnolia Arkansas. We had the place to ourselves on Sunday. $16.00 per nights for W/E.This wooded road was next to The MotherShip, you can see a few autumn colors trying to show through at the top of the photograph. We walked about as far down as you can see in the picture when I was literally attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes! YIKES! We (me and the dogs) ran back to the MotherShip as fast as our ample butts could get us there!Monday we travelled to Louisiana to Chemin-A-Haute State Park just a bit north of Bastrop LA. We had spent a night here on our last trip from Florida to NM 3 years ago. We remembered it as being a nice clean park. 3 years and we cannot say the same thing now! DIRTY!The restrooms/showers were nasty and the park looked abandoned! I didn’t even bother with photos it was that sad!

So Tuesday finds us on the road for 7.5 hours and over 300 miles! That for us was amazing. We crossed the Mississippi River at Natchez and it was a breeze at 1 pm! No traffic to make me feel rushed or pushed or nervous UNTIL we hit the Natchez side. Holey Moley! Just as I was getting ready to celebrate making across THE BRIDGE one more time, all heck broke loose on the highways! Where did all this traffic come from? I had a hard time keeping up with Chuck and not getting stuck at traffic lights for about 10 minutes until we finally turned off on highway 84 and as fast as all the traffic had surrounded us, it was gone! Highway 84 across Mississippi is 4 lanes of almost non-existent traffic! Very few gas stations and we only saw 2 signs for campgrounds the whole way! Finally we crossed the Alabama state line and in about 20 miles we located the C.O.E. Campground on the Tombigbee River. Just a small, simple sign out on the highway that just says “Service Park”. Easy to miss unless you know where it is. Just a bit west of Coffeeville Alabama.Campsites are right next to the river! We have been sitting around all day watching the yachts and barges go up and down the river.

Yep, this is as good as it gets!We get to camp next to the river with a great table and fire ring and scenery!AND Golden Orb Spiders! This beauty was almost palm sized! In case you are not familiar with the Golden Orb, they weave a web that looks like spun gold!One of my favorite spiders!One of the several barges that were headed up the river today.The campsites are very large and roomy! There is one campsite between us and the RV you see in the background. Plenty of room leftover for the truck, The MotherShip and my TrailBlazer in our site! As I type this another tug just went downriver pushing 3 barges loaded with coal! So glad we decided to stay 2 nights. The cost for 2 nights was $22! Life really doesn’t get any better than this! This park is most definately on our top 5 list! P.S, Woke up this morning to a "trick or treat" bag full of candy on our doorstep! Now was that nice or what? This is just one of the many things that make this park so special!

Headed to Florida tomorrow! YaY! So will sign off for now from the crew of The MotherShip Chuck, Geri, DoogieBowser and Radar! Thanks for coming along!

I missed the axle post...ecks I'll have to go back...Crap! But now...nice spot! Were at the other end of Natchez at a beautiful spot in a Natl Forest...perfect for a fisherman for sure. A web of gold...I'll be in the lookout. Sure seeing different species of creatures...much to learn on the road! Bad storms tomorrow...be our first in a Casita, trying not to stress to bad :)

Looks like a super place to hang out for a couple days. That boat takes me back, looks like a Carver, about 45feet. Very similar to the one we had. BUT so glad to be here in the 5er and out of the boat.Looking forward to hhearing about landing in FL.Safe travels

we love to stay at COE parks too. atmosphere is so much different than a campground. My husband used to work on the Mississippi river and we both love watching river traffic, of course we're both Navy so it's in our blood!

Then you really should find time to visit this park! Ya'll would love it! We even woke up this morning to find a "trick or treat" bag full of candy on our doorstep! We are going see about wrkamping here!